
Podcast

In December 1956, the Apartheid government stunned the nation by raiding homes and offices across South Africa, arresting 156 prominent anti-apartheid activists in a single day. Ch…

In March 1922, Johannesburg was a war zone. White miners, backed by armed commandos, took up arms against the state in what became known as the Rand Rebellion. This episode explore…

In June 1992, as South Africa stumbled toward its first democratic elections, a horrific massacre in the Vaal Triangle settlement of Boipatong nearly derailed the entire negotiated…

In 1914, just four years after the Union of South Africa was formed, the country plunged into a brief but bitter civil war. When Prime Minister Louis Botha committed South African…

On 21 March 1960, peaceful anti-pass protesters in Sharpeville were gunned down by police, killing 69 and wounding 180. This episode reconstructs the day, introduces the Pan Africa…

In 1856, a teenage girl named Nongqawuse emerged from the banks of the Gxarha River in British Kaffraria with a prophecy: the amaXhosa must slaughter their cattle and destroy their…

This episode of The Story of South Africa: Empire, Apartheid, and Transformation examines the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War, a pivotal conflict that reshaped Southern Africa. Lucas and Luna…

In this episode of The Story of South Africa, Lucas and Luna revisit the 1914 Afrikaner Rebellion against South Africa's entry into World War I, but from a fresh angle: the afterma…

In this episode of The Story of South Africa, Lucas and Luna delve into the 1914 Afrikaner Rebellion, a revolt by Boer commandos against the Union of South Africa's decision to joi…

Long before apartheid's grand architecture, a single piece of colonial legislation in the eastern Cape quietly engineered dispossession on an industrial scale. The 1894 Glen Grey A…

In September 1795, a British expeditionary force landed at Simon's Town and marched on Cape Town, forcing the surrender of the Dutch Cape Colony after a brief but decisive campaign…

On September 6, 1966, a parliamentary messenger named Dimitri Tsafendas stabbed Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd to death in Cape Town. This episode explores Tsafendas's extraordina…

In this episode of The Story of South Africa, Lucas and Luna explore the life and death of Steve Biko, the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, whose brutal murder in polic…

In 1913, South Africa's newly formed Union government passed the Natives Land Act, a law that reserved just 7% of the country's land for black Africans, who made up over two-thirds…

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the 1911 Mines and Works Act — a piece of legislation that cemented the 'colour bar' in South Africa's mining industry, reserving skilled jo…

In this episode of The Story of South Africa, Lucas and Luna explore the Sixth Frontier War (1834–1835) on the Eastern Cape, a conflict that reshaped relations between the Cape Col…

In 1948, South Africa's general election delivered a seismic shift: the National Party, led by D.F. Malan, defeated Jan Smuts's United Party on a platform of apartheid. This episod…

In 1913, months after the Natives Land Act, Black women in Bloemfontein launched a sustained campaign against pass laws that would foreshadow later anti-apartheid protests. This ep…

In the early hours of February 21, 1917, the troopship SS Mendi collided with another vessel in the English Channel and sank within 25 minutes. Over 600 Black South African soldier…

In 1819, a force of some 6,000 Xhosa warriors led by the prophet Nxele attacked the British settlement of Grahamstown on the Eastern Cape frontier. This episode tells the story of…
